Software Free

To pay so much attention to Bill Gates' retirement is missing the point. What really matters is not Gates, nor Microsoft, but the unethical system of restrictions that Microsoft, like many other software companies, imposes on its customers.

I have here a collection of 20 of my favorite quotes from the famous free software evangelist and living legend Richard M. Stallman.

The newly formed Manchester Free software Group hosted Richard Stallman in Manchester or the first of May.
Talking on the subject of Free Software in ethics and practice", RMS drew a crowd of more than 300 people to the event, run in association with the BCS and IET.

Richard Stallman just switched to an OLPC XO, for the free bios, and at that same moment in time, Nicholas Negroponte made some odd statements about Windows and the OLPC.

Yesterday I attended an inspirational talk from Richard Stallman that contained many familiar bits, a healthy dose of humour and an interesting questions session, which touched on the AGPL, GPLv3 and other currently-debated topics that are more about the present than about the past.

It's easy to focus on the dramatic bad news - like the OOXML shenanigans - and overlook the quiet success stories. Like the announcement that the Presidente of Ecuador, Rafael Correa Delgado, has just signed a decree making the use of open source the default policy for government:

El Presidente de la República, Rafael Correa, mediante decreto No. 1014 de 10 de abril del 2008, establece como política pública para las entidades de la administración pública central la utilización de Software Libre en sus sistemas y equipamientos informáticos.

[Via Google Translate:

The President of the Republic, Rafael Correa, by decree no. 1014 of April 10, 2008, establishes as public policy for institutions of the central administration, the use of free software in their computer systems and equipment.]

"Twice a year I get to release the song & lyrics, and write a little commentary on something the project dealt with other [than] the release. Hope you guys enjoy," said OpenBSD creator Theo de Raadt, including a link to the latest OpenBSD song. The OpenBSD project maintains a six month release cycle, with the upcoming 4.3 release officially scheduled for May 1st, 2008. Each release includes a song relevant to issues faced by the project during the past six months. The song for the upcoming 4.3 release is titled, "Home to Hypocrisy", with scathing references to some recent postings on the OpenBSD -misc mailing list by Free Software Foundation creator Richard Stallman. In his commentary, Theo explained, "we release our software in ways that are maximally free. We remove all restrictions on use and distribution, but leave a requirement to be known as the authors." He continued, describing the recent confrontation on the OpenBSD -misc mailing list:

And I’m back from the FSF meeting at M.I.T. in Cambridge. The trip went well, I enjoyed myself, and will have more to say later.

One of the highlights was meeting Richard Stallman in person. I think he is a great man, and history will recognize him as a hugely important and influential person. No matter that he can be difficult and off-putting in various ways. It was an honor to shake his hand and thank him for what he’s done and is doing for software freedom.

But time is short and I’ll work on posting later when I can. In the meantime, you might enjoy this picture of Boston over the Charles River, taken from the Longfellow Bridge to Cambridge.

2816 x 2112

The visit of the Free Software Foundation leader Richard Stallman to Russia in March 2008 could be canceled because of the problems with too-late visa application. A part of the trouble appeared to be Stallman's rejection to get help from Victor Alksnis, the State Duma member and the only Russian politician who helps Free Software and Open Source movements in Russia.

The extraordinary Richard Stallman, prophet of free software, always makes a deep and lasting impression.

Many of us know that governments can threaten the human rights of software users through censorship and surveillance of the Internet. Many do not realize that the software they run on their home or work computers can be an even worse threat. Thinking of software as "just a tool", they suppose that it obeys them, when in fact it often obeys others instead.

But today while reading Glyn Moody's Rebel Code, I came across this paragraph that describe about the hero of free software, Mr Richard Matthew Stallman, that I would really like to quote and share with you: